Forgotten fire hydrants

Will the city ever treat Staten Island fair and square? Not just from time to time, but day in and day out.

More than just local politics in “The Forgotten Borough” is at stake.

Sometimes it’s a matter of life and death.

We’re not surprised that it has been taking longer for the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to repair broken fire hydrants on Staten Island than elsewhere in the city. Such neglect is only too familiar.

According to an audit released by city Comptroller John C. Liu, the city DEP is not fixing hydrants fast enough, putting firefighters and the public at risk.

The audit determined that the citywide average for repairing fire plugs in fiscal year 2009 was 18 days, but the average for Staten Island was 33.4 days.

Citing the lag from borough to borough in the time it took to make repairs, the comptroller’s office said: “The DEP could not explain the discrepancy.”

A telling revelation, to say the least.

On Staten Island, a fire plug on McVeigh Avenue in New Springville went 366 days without repair.

Two hydrants in the borough weren’t fixed in 90 days and four cases were still unresolved when the audit concluded.

It’s the job of the Fire Department to monitor and inspect the more than 100,000 hydrants throughout the city - including nearly 16,000 on Staten Island - and to let the Department of Environmental Protection know which ones need to be repaired or upgraded.

Especially crucial are “high-priority” fire plugs, those which are located near a school, hospital or senior citizen’s home, or stand alone on the block.

At total of 149 high-priority hydrant work orders were reviewed by the audit, which found that some of those fire plugs were out of service anywhere from three months to more than one year.

Thirty-eight percent of the high priority hydrants surveyed did not meet the DEP’s goal for repairs to be made within 10 days.

On Staten Island, the audit found, a fire plug at 15 Little Clove Road waited 102 days to be fixed.

During the past two years, improvements have been made, according to the DEP.

It pointed out that the department works closely with the FDNY to make sure the water supply is adequate to fight fires.

The citywide response time to replace high-priority hydrants is said by the DEP to have been cut to about seven days.

On Staten Island, the average is now eight days.

Furthermore, Staten Island has the lowest percentage of inoperative hydrants (0.26 percent) of any borough in the city.

You can help us keep it that way.

Have you spotted anything awry in your neighborhood ? Send an e-mail with “Need A Fix” in the subject field to shores@siadvance.com.